Acceptance.

Couple of bloggers wrote posts about why people do personal style blogging. So it got me thinking while writting comments and there will be a lot of random thoughts about the same topic: why do people blog about their personal style and why it is needed.

Before I answer I would like to start from the beginning – why I got interested in fashion in general.

One day I was sitting at the office and started googling the word fashion. I stumbled accross The Sartorialist…then I found some website with the list of fashion blogs and this is how I found Sea of Shoes, the Glamourai and many more. And I thought to myself – wow, this is so cool, awesome idea. And it is not only high end designer stuff, but chain store clothing, second hand, inherited, self made clothing etc. People’s pictures are being taken simply on the street, because they look interesting. People actually write what, where and why they wear certain clothes. I always thought of myself as a good judge of taste, but after flipping through blogs I realized that I actually do not show it. No one can see what I see.

Why do I not let this ability to see beauty in something non conventional (or should I say non conservative) show? I never had money for clothes and because of my über chaotic nature and need for pretty things I always had a very random wardrobe (only now it starts to get into some sort of shape)..I would buy something when I had money(which was seldom), but I couldn’t wear that piece, because it didn’t go with anything – neither my clothing, nor occassion (I mean who would wear something sparkly to 8:30 lecture in the university, I thought to myself at that time)…So I would end up again wearing jeans and t shirts or shirts and having a stack of clothes I couldn’t wear.

So, years later, this is why I started my own blog – to force myself out of this comfort zone. Document my life through pictures. See myself from another perspective. Find the style that I like best. (And in about 5 years go and say – OMG, I WORE THIS? Hell no! :D) And if anyone will like my blog – even better. Isn’t it great when someone else not only you appreciates what you do?

And now about the name of the post and getting back to the name of the post. Acceptance is the thing I learned from fashion. It’s some sort of a side effect of being exposed to it. I used to frown when I saw someone wearing something unconventional. I think because I was born in USSR, where you were not supposed to be different and also because of general conservativness of my little home town and Lithuanians as a nation in general. Someone looking differently was always the object of gossip. (I hate gossip.) And even now you can avoid that only if you wear exact same stuff as everyone else or so called normal clothes(there are a lot of people who refer to clothes in categories as normal and strange) – conservative stuff, which is accepted by default. It is annoying, because when you wear something different – people stare..and I hate when people stare (my feet do not communicate with my brain then and I am paranoid that I will fall). You know, there are a lot of things that I would not wear, but why should it bother me, that someone else is wearing this?

After watching runway pictures, reading blogs there are very few things that I cannot accept. Now instead of going OMG what is that person wearing, I try to take a closer look and see, before I judge (it usually happens when I see people wearing crocs in the middle of the town or ripped tights). And you know what…judgment does not seem to pop up that often anymore. You learn to get rid of negativity. And this works not just for clothes, but in general for accepting things of any kind. So, you can say that fashion is actually some sort of therapy too.

Most of the blogs I read are written by hm..everyday people. They do not do this to show off, or at least I never got the vibe of showing off. It is so easy to relate to them, because they are written by a person, you see in the pictures. It does not feel artificial. And to get inspiration from a real person and not some glammed up magazine is really something. You know that you actually could pull the outfit off, since this person in the pictures taken with the help of the tripod can, and also – you could actually afford it!

The only thing I am afraid of now is that a lot of them blogs are turning into marketing tools. Established bloggers are getting free stuff from companies, organizing give aways, have sponsors, and well…make a living out of it. Which is quite cool. Doing what you love and getting paid…who doesn’t want that, eh? But with this it seems that personality starts to give way to marketing. I hope I am wrong.

So there you go. Fashion gives you perspective not just on fashion itself. So, let’s just all be less judgmental and accept each other.

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I don’t actually like people judging other people’s outfit unless the person wearing it is literally asking for advice, because I find the person’s individual choices untethered by anyone else’s opinion interesting. You say so yourself: “You know, there are a lot of things that I would not wear, but why should it bother me, that someone else is wearing this?” I don’t even condemn crocs any more. Sure they’re ugly, but who cares? You’re so right though about fashion and fashion blogs teaching all sorts of acceptance and teaching you to accept a person for their individual choices just because that individuality is beautiful and clothes need not, your attitude is enough to look fab.

p.s. I just think that 100 people leaving comments of 3 to 5 words (like..you look great) is rather boring, but I do like the comments like yours on my previous post. It is nice to know things like that (about the sweater).